Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty
Angelo stopped at the Diner before work and was pleased to see Michael in the queue ahead of him again.
"Hi," he said.
Michael looked puzzled.
"I um... I work with Charlie," Angelo explained. "I think I met you yesterday?"
"Oh yeah, vaguely..." Michael said uncertainly.
"So, how do you know Charlie?" Angelo dared.
"I'm not really comfortable discussing that," Michael said. "But it was nice to meet you."
He accepted his coffee from Leah and headed out of the Diner, not realising that he had only added fuel to Angelo's fire.
"Elijah!" Joey hollered when she saw the Reverend walking across the sand with Miles.
The two men headed on over.
"You're my Pastor and I respect you and everything but seriously, what are you doing to Leah?" Joey asked, getting right to the point.
Miles looked awkward. Elijah looked confused.
"I didn't think I was doing anything to her," he said.
"You avoided her at self defence last night," Joey said bluntly. "She was really upset."
"Look, it's awkward, okay?" Elijah said. "You know that."
"I know you like each other so why don't you just be honest with her?" Joey suggested.
"I can't!"
"Why not?" Miles asked, deciding to get involved after all.
"Because I was with her husband when he died!" Elijah blurted out.
Now it was Miles and Joey's turn to look confused.
Having had the same idea as Angelo, Charlie also headed to the Diner before work in order to get her caffeine fix. She spotted Ruby sitting with Nicole, Annie, Romeo and Xavier in a corner. Ordering her drink, she approached.
"Shouldn't you all be in school already?" she asked.
"We're leaving soon," Ruby promised. "But we're going straight to rehearsal so we can start a bit later."
She offered her most innocent smile, batting her eyelashes for effect. Charlie looked unconvinced.
"And I've got a busy day of designing ahead of me," Nicole said cheerfully, getting to her feet.
"Joey said things were working out," Charlie remembered. "Well done."
"Thanks!" Nicole said, saying goodbye to everyone and skipping out of the building.
"How are you finding being Juliet, Romeo?" Charlie asked with a hint of a smile.
He groaned and Ruby warned her not to ask.
"Vinnie died years ago," Miles said. "There was a fire in prison."
Elijah shook his head.
"He was in witness protection," he explained. "His death was a cover."
"What?" Joey squeaked. "Does Leah know?"
"Yes," Elijah said. "He was telling me all about her and VJ on his deathbed. That's half the reason why I accepted the job in this parish. I was curious. He had quite the effect on me."
Sighing heavily, the Reverend wasn't entirely convinced that he should be sharing all of this.
"The last thing I expected was to develop feelings for his wife," he said. "How can I go ahead with that knowing what I know? And how can I even begin to explain that her first love has died?"
"Xave, can you go and help?" Ruby asked.
They, along with Annie, Romeo and the rest of the class, were meant to be doing a dress rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, except Romeo, who was ironically playing Juliet, had refused to come out of the changing room.
"What am I meant to do?" Xavier asked, a little exasperated.
"You're a guy," Ruby insisted. "Tell him that he shouldn't feel stupid in a dress."
"Ruby, I'm in a nurse's uniform," Xavier said sourly. "I feel stupid in the dress. How the hell do you expect me to convince him not to?"
"Well, you feel stupid but you're still wearing it so go and tell him that!"
Sighing unhappily, Xavier stropped off in order to talk his friend round.
"I ran into that Michael guy this morning," Angelo ventured as casually as possible while he was out on patrol with a reluctant Charlie.
The Sergeant tried not to look too concerned.
"Did you?" she asked.
"Yeah, he's a pretty nice guy actually," Angelo said, hoping he could blag the conversation enough to figure things out for definite.
"Yeah, he's great," Charlie said, focussing on driving.
Inside, her mind was racing at the thought of Angelo finding out that she was in therapy. It wasn't something she was ashamed of, exactly, but she didn't want it to be public knowledge either. For starters, she was in charge of a police station. She didn't want Angelo and the rest of her colleagues – even Watson – knowing how badly the incident with Hugo had affected her.
"Have you known him long?" Angelo wondered.
"Not long," Charlie said. "We met last year."
Angelo looked surprised.
"Why?" Charlie asked anxiously.
"Just curious," Angelo replied, offering what he hoped was a calming, charming smile.
He knew he had unnerved her. And he was certain that he knew why.
Ruby arrived home from school to find Charlie and Joey deep in conversation. They stopped talking abruptly.
"Do you want me to leave?" the teenager teased.
"No, you're fine," Joey assured her.
She had been explaining Elijah's situation to Charlie and it had stunned them both to say the least.
"How was rehearsal?" Charlie asked. "I presume you actually showed up in the end."
Ruby poked her tongue out before explaining that their dress rehearsal had been changed to an out of costume one because Romeo had had a tantrum about wearing a dress.
"Poor thing," Charlie giggled.
"It's a shame really because I think this is pretty much his last chance to convince Annie to stay."
"Well, if she's being that hard on him, maybe he's better off without her," Joey said, surprising everyone including herself by her sour tone.
Ruby stared.
"I'm just saying..." Joey mumbled. "If she really wanted to be with him, why is she messing him about?"
"Maybe she can't help it," Charlie said. "I mean, I messed you about..."
"Only because you were panicking about being in love with a girl," Joey reminded her. "It was valid. I freaked out the first time I met a girl I liked."
Charlie chuckled and hugged the woman that believed so much in her.
"Anyway, it was all kind of strange," Ruby said a little glumly. "But I totally kick arse at being Mercutio."
She grinned.
"Speaking of weird," Charlie said. "Angelo was really odd today."
"Angelo's odd every day," Joey pointed out.
"No, but I mean weirder than normal," Charlie said. "I think he tried to befriend Michael."
"Your counsellor?" Ruby asked.
Charlie nodded.
"Does he know who he is?" Joey asked.
"I hope not!" Charlie said. "I don't want him knowing about my personal life. I don't really want anyone knowing – especially as I get to finish this week. Yay!"
She did a little, celebratory dance on the sofa. Joey laughed.
"I'd just forget it," Joey said. "He's just weird. I think it's something we're going to have to live with."
Charlie nodded and sank back on the couch.
"What are you guys doing tonight?" Ruby asked.
"We were thinking of going to the movies," Charlie said. "Want to come?"
"I'm rehearsing with Xavier," her daughter replied. "Try not to miss me too much!"
Next time... Miles falls out with Alf and Marilyn, Charlie and Joey are caught out and Ruby blurts out a secret...
